Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Comments
Lol.
The trick is to prop it right next to wherever you spend the most time sitting, so that you don’t have to get up to reach it.
His finger gym has been my go to warmup routine for years, and IMVHO doing that a lot did more for improving my technique and how "natural" it feels to play than anything else I've learned.
Hold up. I just realized... was this a joke about the obligatory guitar in the corner of every room? Or a serious comment about keeping in close and within eye shot so you remember to play daily?
For me it would be both! 😉
I agree with having it in sight and within reach, though I must admit my guitar is less than 3 feet away from me right now on its floor stand and I haven't picked it up in several months. I need to fix that!
Familiarity. Play it so often that you don't even notice you're doing it - Hendrix had his guitar slung around his neck all day long, even when frying eggs in the kitchen. I used to have my guitar next to my living room chair, and would pick it up during ad breaks and noodle along to the ads and TV music. Drove the Mrs Monzo 1 nuts, but it became a weird 'part of my body', and helped me quickly make a connection between a note I was hearing elsewhere, and finding the same note on the fretboard. Mrs Monzo 2 won't stand for it, so it's now relocated to my work room, along with all my other music making gubbins.
Of course that means I'm completely rubbish at playing rock or any other type of normal music, but if you're looking for a rendition of the Eastenders theme tune then I'm your man.
In my opinion, the real essential thing to have as a guitarist and in fact any musician indeed. 👍
Mine are hanging on the wall looking down at me accusingly as I sit at the desk messing with synths. One of them went so far as to coax the hanger out of the wall to fall wammy bar down right on top of my Korg NanoKEY Studio exploding it into many popped off buttons and keys, and leaving a nice divot in the middle of the XY pad. No permanent damage done, the keys and knobs all popped back on nicely, but it did succeed in getting my attention. True story. I took it as a warning.
A lover spurned is a dangerous thing.
Yeah, that’s basic musicianship, but it’s like a superpower once you’ve acquired it.
The Artiphon Instrument 1 is fantastic for this. I don't really rate it for chords or picking, but in tap mode you can just noodle scales, arpeggios, and melodic lines on the fingerboard one-handed with one earphone while watching TV without disturbing anyone. It's so compact it doesn't even intrude into anyone else's space on the sofa. And because it's MPE, the range of expression you can get from it is gorgeous.
You will quickly learn that:
If you need proof just watch the videos of any great player recorded from their warehouse of guitars or just look in the background. Those guitar purchases made them great. It takes a lot of your time to evaluate each one to the point where you realize you need the next one so 3-4 hours per day gets you more guitars faster to reach your goals.
I disagree that the instrument makes a musician great. There are plenty of fantastic musicians who played whatever instrument was to hand and it never held them back. People like Charlie Parker and Django Reinhardt sometimes played absolute pieces of crap, but it made no difference to them.
A really bad instrument might add to the frustration of learning, but it shouldn’t stop anyone from progressing as long as the basic functionality is all there.
If you are correct there would be more Charlie Parkers and Django Reinhardts. I'm looking about and all I see are guitar players with closets full of instruments.
Sit by a table, start banging your fingertips on the table for a minute, have a rest repeat! That was my first guitar lesson! Second, Learn 3 chords write a song and earn a million! I didn’t earn a million but I can write songs
There’s no reason there would be more of specific musicians if people start on instruments that are of inferior quality, but it might lead to more musicians who are willing to play those instruments.
Maybe a better example would be countries where the general population is poor - quality instruments are just not available to most musicians, but you still here music everywhere. This includes as many virtuosos as there are in countries where quality instruments are available. It’s definitely the case across the Caribbean - I’ve seen that for myself.
Legit
always keep an axe by your desk
That's exactly how I learned to play a flamenco tremolo.
I stopped playing with a pick back in the 90s. I found myself going too fast and playing too many notes and shredding too much. Getting rid of the pick helped. I still occasionally get going too fast and play too many notes, but at least I no longer shred.
I think you should play with both, depending on the occasion. Neil Young only ever plays with a pick and his acoustic playing is outstanding, so I don't think fingers are necessarily always better.
Interesting. I learned to play with a pick first. Years later I got Gustavo Assis-Brasil's Hybrid Picking for Guitar book, which is actually influenced by Assis-Brasil's background in the Abel Carlevaro school of classical guitar, not country guitar. Anyway I learned hybrid picking via that and Brett Garsed's website. Garsed can probably hang w/ the country guys but he's more of a rock/fusion player.
Then I got Adam Rafferty's DVD on how to play Stevie Wonder songs fingerstyle and starting getting more into straight up fingerstyle. Sean McGowan is my most recent influence for fingerstyle. His method is the first I found that actually works for - for me - for getting rounder tones with more dynamics out of the high E string on my Strat and Tele when playing fingerstyle. It's also unusual in that the thumb is used more for muting, although it does get some action too.
I’ve never heard anyone complain about shredding too much.
Is this why you are only second best?
I don't like the sound of every note picked. I like legato. Dropping the pick forced me to phrase better.
Tim Pierce on one of his Youtube videos stated that fast alternate picking has never been his strength, and I've seen/heard other pro guitarists make similar statements. I wouldn't be surprised if Pierce could alternate-pick circle around me, but he's probably talking about his skill in comparison to Paul Gilbert, Andy Wood, or other celebrity in the shred metal or bluegrass flatpicking worlds.
It really depends on the kind of work you get the most as a professional. I get the impression that most of the pro session and touring guitarists are hired for their ability to craft/record/perform solid rhythm guitar parts - parts that meet the client's requirements for a song and are in sync with the rhythm section. If the job entails lead guitar work, they just have to create something with a good melody that fits the song - alternate picking the solo as fast as possible isn't alway the most desirable choice. Tim Pierce's channel is really good for info on what the life of a pro guitarist is really like. I first heard of him as a session player for Rick Springfield and Adele, and superfast alternate picking not really called for in their music.
I guess if your speciality in certain genres of metal or bluegrass, then you would need the well-oiled, high performance alternate picking skill. But those are very specialized fields.
I’ve played for 25 years, mostly Les Pauls and Teles, countless bands, hundreds of shows, and I never once set up or adjusted a guitar until last night. A friend gifted me a Godin 5th Avenue Kingpin hollowbody with a floating bridge that was totally in the wrong place, so after absorbing several videos and articles I went all in with some tools and adjusted it perfectly. I am actually so proud of myself! Suddenly the guitar plays and sounds ideal. I’ve always taken my guitars in for professional adjustments, but I should have learned how to do this years ago. It’s not guess work, it’s measured physics and math. Now I’m looking at this old Hondo H76 strat copy I have in the corner and itching to dissect and modify it. I know many people already know and practice guitar tech, but I encourage everyone to do what I was afraid to do all these years, don’t just play but get into the nuts and bolts and guts. You’ll be a better player for it.
I will say though that chasing guitar schools and academies and video tutorials is not a magic bullet. I’m completely self taught, and in my first year just played along with the radio for 10 hours a day, often single note melodies, and also practiced switching cowboy chords. Things like chord knowledge and scales can come later, but there is no shortcut to replacing hours and hours of practicing just getting around the board on your own terms. The first year of fretting, picking, and playing by ear set me up for success, even if chord books and scale exercises came later. I cannot stress enough that you have to just pick up the guitar and drill the fundamentals into your fingers for at least a year, before you can venture out to the next level. This way also gives you your own style and touch, instead of just drilling scales.
@JoyceRoadStudios thanks for the inspiration with modding the guitar. I’m the same way. Time to change that.
ok....write your own music....always. If you learn to copy, you'll make other people's music. No matter how bad, or how genius, play music you make up yourself. Even if it's just 3 chords. Lou Reed said a great song shouldn't have more than 3 chords ! INterestingLY while reading the comments ....I watching one of justin's videos, that lead me , like any musician to another video....what he thought about tuning an instrument. Honestly, I never saw him play, but if that's all he can teach me about tuning a guitar, I won't trust him with advice on actually playing a guitar. People...there was a time before computers...and people made guitar music....without a clip-on tuner. And my advice on tuning a guitar is....every guitar is different, and must be tuned to itself and it's whole fretboard. Tuning machines have really helped get to the ballpark faster, but they don't catch the leftfield fly. The key to tuning is harmonics. The whole guitar... at least 12frets must be in tune with itself. Justin never once mentioned using harmonics, only his cheap clip-on... ( wasn't even a t c helicon ) . The guitar fretboard, like any ifretless guitar player knows, is an endless repeatable system of notes. Tune the strings to themselves using the same notes on different strings, all the way down. Then use harmonics to exact the relationship between strings. Every guitar fretboard is a tuning compromise. Then make up your own music...cause 99 times out of 100, even the life of a studio musician is repeatable and boring...unless you have the luck to be chosen by a true genius. So...to stay interested for the long run....write songs. It's a proven path to guitar playing excellence. And imho the guitar is the best instrument for doing it. And don't rely on the metronome. Real music flows with the epps and flow of the emotion. And after....learn a few pieces by bach or mozart to play at parties.